Pescennius Niger, 194 A

D.; and Heraclius defeated the Persian army of Khusrau, 622. I y (e-se'). A suburb of Paris, immediately southwest of the fortifications. Population (1891), commune, 12,830. Istakhr. See Perse polis . Istambul, or Istamboul (es-täm-böl'). A Turk- ish name of Constantinople. Istar. See Ishtar . Ister (is'ter). A Latin name of the Danube. Isthmian games. See Isthmian sanctuary . Isthmian sanctuary, The. A sanctuary in the Isthmus of Corinth, near the eastern mouth of the modern canal. It was the seat of the Isthmian games, which were celebrated every two years, and were second in importance only to those of Olympia. The sacred inclosure, which was strongly fortified in the time of August us, is roughly triangular in shape, about 660 feet from east to west, and somewhat more from north to south. Within it were the temples of Poseidon (Doric) and Palæmon (Ionic), portions of the architecture of both of which have been recovered. The northern wall of the sanctuary coincides with the great defensive wall cro ing mus. Outside of the inclosure, to the south, lies the stadium, in which the chief exercises were held, and to the west is the Roman theater, close behind which was the But whatever we make of the Etruscans, the rest of Italy in the older sense was held by various branches of Aryan race nearly allied to the Greeks, whom we call the Italians. Of this race there were two great branches. One of them, under various names, seems to have held all the southern part of the western coast of Italy, and to have spread into Sicily. Some of the tribes of this branch seem to have been almost as nearly akin to the Greeks as the Epeirots and other kindred nations on the east side of the Hadriatic. Of this branch of the Italian race, the most famous people were the Latins; and it was the greatest Latin city, the border city of the Latins against the Etruscans, the city of Rome on the Tiber, which became, step by step, the mistre of Latium, of Italy, and of the Mediterranean world. The other branch, which held a much larger part of the peninsula, taking in the Sabines, Aequians, Volscians, Samnites, Lucanians, and other people who play a great part in Roman history, may perhaps be cla ed together as Opicans or Oscans, in distinction from the Latins and the other tribes allied to them. These tribes seem to have pre ed from the eastern, the Hadriatic, coast of Italy, down upon the nations to the south west of them, and to have largely extended their borders at their expense.